Democracy Now! Blog

As the United Nations Security Council considers the Palestinian bid for statehood, we speak with human rights lawyer, Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza and Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights.

Amy Goodman has been named "Truthdigger of the Week" for taking the Democracy Now! camera and crew to Georgia for what turned out to be a marathon examination of the emotional events leading up to the execution of Troy Davis.

In part two of our interview with veteran journalist Ron Suskind about his explosive new book, "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President," he examines the challenges faced by President Obama and his evolution as a leader. [includes rush transcript]

Troy Anthony Davis, who maintained his innocence until his last breath, was executed by the state of Georgia Wednesday night. As the world watched to see whether his final appeal for a stay of execution would be granted by the U.S. Supreme Court, Democracy Now! broadcast live for six hours from outside the prison grounds where Davis was ultimately killed by lethal injection at 11:08 p.m. EDT. [includes rush transcript]

2,000 people occupied Wall Street on Saturday. They weren’t carrying the banner of the tea party, the Gadsden flag with its coiled snake and the threat “Don’t Tread on Me.” Yet their message was clear:“We are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”

The U.S. hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have been released in Iran after two years in prison on charges of espionage. Bauer and Fattal were granted bail earlier today and handed over to Swiss diplomats. The pair were arrested in 2009, along with Sarah Shourd, while hiking near the Iran-Iraq border. We get reaction from Esther Kaplan of the Nation Institute, a colleague of the hikers who last year published an extensive investigation reporting that they were arrested on the Iraqi side of the Iran-Iraq border—not in Iran as the Iranian government has claimed. [includes rush transcript]

Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman will host a live 2-hour special broadcast on Wednesday, September 21 from 6pm to 8pm EDT from outside the prison in Jackson, Georgia, where death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis is scheduled to be executed at 7pm EDT.

Democracy Now! producer Renée Feltz reports for The Nation that Texas jurors were told that convicted murderer Duane Buck posed “future dangerousness” because of his race. He is scheduled to die on September 15.

Death brings cheers these days in America. In this week’s Republican presidential debate, when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked, hypothetically, if a man who chose to carry no medical insurance, then was stricken with a grave illness, should be left to die, cheers of “Yeah!” filled the hall. When, in the prior debate, Gov. Rick Perry was asked about his enthusiastic use of the death penalty in Texas, the crowd erupted into sustained applause. This dynamic is why challenging the death sentence to be carried out against Troy Davis by the state of Georgia on Sept. 21 is so important.

In our extended interview with Noam Chomsky, he discusses the case against participating in Libya’s civil war, the increasing isolation of Israel in the Middle East, and his shock at the Republican presidential candidates’ positions on issues such as climate change. [includes rush transcript]

Democracy Now! kicked off Pacifica Radio’s 9/11 anniversary special on Sunday with an hour of voices from our coverage in the past decade. The memorial broadcast began the way Sept. 11, 2001, began for many Pacifica listeners, with Amy Goodman reporting ‘live’ from New York, just a few blocks away from where the planes hit the World Trade Center towers.

As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, read a chapter of Amy and David Goodman’s book, "Exception to the Rulers," on 9/11, the families of the 9/11 victims who called for peace, the other September 11ths and more. The chapter is titled "Blowback."

The body bag marked “Victim 0001” on Sept. 11, 2001, contained the corpse of Father Mychal Judge, a Catholic chaplain with the Fire Department of New York. His was the first recorded death from the attacks that morning. His life’s work should be central to the 10th anniversary commemorations of the Sept. 11 attacks: peace, tolerance and reconciliation.

Democracy Now! correspondent, Sharif Abdel Kouddous profiles renowned Syrian human rights lawyer, Haitham al-Maleh, for The Nation magazine. Maleh, 81, has spent most of his life fighting against government oppression in Syria. Today, he believes victory could be at hand.

We continue our interview with Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, the widow of a U.S. Army Ranger who confronted former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about her husband’s suicide ahead of his eighth deployment overseas. She calls for a military memorial, and notes she has not received a condolence letter from President Obama. We also speak with Jorge Gonzalez, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, about the campaign to end the redeployment of all traumatized troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“When one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it,” wrote Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s Reich minister of propaganda, in 1941. Former Vice President Dick Cheney seems to have taken the famous Nazi’s advice in his new book, “In My Time.”

The White House was rocked Tuesday, not only by a 5.8-magnitude earthquake, but by the protests mounting outside its gates. More than 2,100 people say they’ll risk arrest there during the next two weeks. They oppose the Keystone XL pipeline project, designed to carry heavy crude oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Democracy Now correspondent, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, reports in The Nation magazine that one of Egypt’s most prominent activists faces prosecution in a military court for speaking out against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces that came to power following Mubarak’s ouster.

What does the police killing of a homeless man in San Francisco have to do with the Arab Spring uprisings from Tunisia to Syria? The attempt to suppress the protests that followed. In our digitally networked world, the ability to communicate is increasingly viewed as a basic right. Open communication fuels revolutions — it can take down dictators. When governments fear the power of their people, they repress, intimidate and try to silence them, whether in Tahrir Square or downtown San Francisco.

Democracy Now co-host, Juan Gonzalez, reports in the New York Daily News that on the 10th day of the most important labor fight in America, hundreds of striking Verizon workers have vowed to stay out as long as necessary.

A stunning indictment has been handed down in Cincinnati, focusing attention again on police killings of people of color. This is a start for accountability and justice. Cleveland should pay attention. As the thousand people gathered there last weekend said clearly, “Black Lives Matter.”

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